HOUSTON - The LSU Swimming and Diving program wrapped up the first day of competition at the Phil Hansel Invitational in Houston, Texas with multiple victories.

The No. 19 Lady Tigers are competing against 13 women's teams, while the No. 20 Tigers are competing against four men's teams. After the first day, the men's team is in first place with 322 points and the women's team is in fourth with 119 points.

Preliminary competition will begin tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. The finals will begin at 5 p.m.

Live meet results are being posted on uhcougars.com, diving results can be found on Divemeets.com and a full recap of each day's events will be available on LSUsports.net.

"With so many teams here, you don't know where everyone is with their rests and all the things like that," Swimming Coach Dave Geyer said. "We went through prelims not in our technical suits and then went with them in the finals. That explains some of our time drops from prelims to finals. I wanted to force us to race harder in the prelims."

Senior Craig Hamilton won the 500 free with a season best of 4:22.77, which earned him an NCAA 'B' cut. His mark was only three seconds slower than the program record that he set during last season's NCAA Championships. Even more impressive, Hamilton dropped 10 seconds from his preliminary swim.

Alvarado Jimenez (1:49.90), Kunkel (1:50.75) and junior Shane Coltharp (1:52.63) took second, third and fourth, respectively, in the 200 individual medley. Rooker finished in sixth with a mark of 1:53.06.

Saco (20.22) and Tuomola (20.35) finished second and third in the 50 free.

"The men went in and stepped up with a win in the 200 free relay," Geyer said. "Then we followed that up with Craig winning the 500. It was good getting that momentum going in the meet. We had some depth in the 200 IM. We had a pretty solid 50 free as well."

"Putting three men in the final was an excellent start to the men's competition," Diving Coach Doug Shaffer said. "This is day one of a three day meet. I felt that we got off to a good start, but we've got to get our rest tonight and get back out tomorrow."

On the women's side, freshman diver Cassie Weil registered a score of 324.25 in a third place finish on the three-meter. During the prelims, Weil notched a score of 332.75.

"We had a good day one. It was long," Shaffer said. "This was our first championship style event, so it gave us an opportunity to work some bugs out. The women's contest lasted over three hours, which is not typical. It made for some challenges. In some cases we performed well in those cases, and in some we need to tweak some things."

Junior Torrey Bussey won the consolation final of the 200 individual medley with a season low time of 2:00.15. Senior Sally Wood captured the 'C' final on the 200 IM with a season best time of 2:00.48. Both marks were NCAA 'B' cuts.

The women's 200 free relay of sophomore Amber Carter, junior Rainey White, Bussey and Wood finished in fifth with a mark of 1:32.69. Carter led off with a season best 50 free split of 23.07.